Homebrewers. The local legends of beer one-off experimentations, imitations-of-large-name-beers, and classic styles redone with new twists. These are the people that like making little tweaks to their recipes to make it that extra little bit more <insert beer flavor, aroma or aftertaste of your choice here>.

So to make up for missing so many of the homebrewers available to you all, I am going to list the brews that I didn’t get to try in my post yesterday. You will feel shame for me, I am sure, when you compare the lists of today and yesterday. I definitely hung my head in shame at myself!

WHEW! That was quite the list! As you can see, my trials versus misses were grossly outnumbered. Clearly I need to party with the homebrew tent way more next year! 😉 So that is all for today, and thanks for your patience while I got all of that typed up. I will continue more in the next installation after a short baking/cooking break tomorrow! Until then, though….

Homebrewers. The local legends of beer one-off experimentations, imitations-of-large-name-beers, and classic styles redone with new twists. These are the people that like making little tweaks to their recipes to make it that extra little bit more <insert beer flavor, aroma or aftertaste of your choice here>.

Now, I will admit, being a novice to the Oktoberfest scene, that I did not do the Homebrewer section the way I should have, and in fact missed a LOT of homebrewer tents completely, let alone beers that I wanted to try out.

So to make up for that, to the homebrewers as well as myself and you all, I am going to list the brews that I tried, and then tomorrow post the list of all that were available that I wasn’t able to try. Got to give a nod to everyone, after all!

Homebrews I Tried:
Brewer / Style of Beer / Unique Beer Name: Review of BeerBill Lynch / Strong Scotch Ale / Bill’s Big Kilted Co*k: This was a full flavored scotch ale, and the “strong” part was definitely right on the money. The malts in this were close to an amber ale, and balanced nicely with some caramel undertones in the aroma and flavor. A little sweetness and a heavy dose of oak finished the flavor off nicely for me.

Bill Lynch / Imperial IPA / Cunning Linguist Imperial IPA: this hearty IPA was full of hops and citrus, with a smooth bite to the end of each sip that let you know you weren’t drinking a wimpy Pale Ale (really, I love you PAs, don’t hate me!!!), but rather an Imperial (Double) IPA full of character and, well, hops! This was good. The name clearly was a seller for it as well.

Bill Lynch / Specialty Beer / Dork Peppermint Patty Stout: This was my favorite of the homebrews, actually. First, it says “Dork”, and that fits me VERY well as a moniker (hey, wear it and be proud, right?!?), and second – peppermint patty?!?! Yes please and thank you kindly. This tasted like a York Peppermint Patty married a Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, and this beauty was the amazing offspring they produced together. (Now do you believe it was my favorite?) The porter coffee notes came through very lightly, but this beer was all about the chocolate and peppermint from start to finish. It didn’t taste like an Altoid, it tasted like a -chocolate- mint. Very well balanced with an understated alcohol punch to it.

**Maybe I should insert here that Bill is a friend of mine’s dad, so we of course had to try quite a few of his beers out! ;-)**

David Jones / Bohemian Pilsner / Czech Your Head: This cleverly titled beer was lighter density, with clear citrus and hop notes from start to finish. It had a bit of a bite to it with the hops, but it smoothed out with the citrus completely. This was a really good beer, we all enjoyed it.

Brian Schonder / Specialty Beer / Dirty Blonde Kitty: This banana beer was super surprising. It tasted almost like a super banana-y banana bread without the nuts (ok, shhhhush!). The caramel malt flavor came through very well underneath the banana, and complemented the medium-weight feel of this beer very well. Plus, again, the name. Gotta love it, and gotta try them, especially if you have a Kat with you! 😉 (loveyoumeanitlady!)

Rob Adams / Fruit Beer / Chocolate Cherry Stout: As a self-proclaimed chocolate junkie, I had to try this beer out. This wasn’t quite as chocolatey as I was expecting, more of a light milk chocolate (lighter flavor and profile), but the cherry flavor came through very well and was almost stronger than the chocolate. This was a good fruit stout, and a lighter feeling one at that (that is not a criticism either).

Loren Standley / Spice, Herb or Vegetable Beer / Sweet Potato Pecan Pie Ale: This was a nice surprise in a very nutty ale, which definitely tasted of sweet potato and malted caramel flavors to me. I enjoyed this more vegetabley beer a lot, especially as it stood out from so many of the others by taste. This was very much an earthier yet sweet medium-bodied beer.

Jason Thornton / Specialty Beer / Joyful Coconut Porter: This was a delicious and island-feeling porter that was basically like someone soaked a stout with Mounds candies. A lot of coconut flavor, a hint of nuttiness but just a hint, and a lot of strong porter coffee and chocolate undertones combined to make this a very enjoyable porter. Everything balanced nicely, and I thoroughly enjoyed this as a huge fan of Mounds candies! 🙂

Nicole Cendrowski / American Stout / Metrosexual Chocolate: This milky chocolate stout ale had an undertone of coffee, but was mostly milk chocolate and a little bit of spice melded into the blend for a nice and somewhat lighter stout. This was a really good stout, I thought, plus the name is just fun as well!

Dave Koenig / Cream Ale / Cheap Trick: This was a decent cream ale, and since I’m not a huge fan of the style, that is pretty much a good recommendation, haha… It was definitely creamy, and definitely had a full flavor though I personally thought it had a little bit of a caramel undertone to it (my friend disagreed), while still being a solid ale with the malt flavors as well. Plus, this band just rocks, so we of course had to try it!

Tomorrow I will post the other Homebrews available which I was unable to try! Gotta share the love after all! 😉

Today I am going to outline all of the craft beers that I tried (or have tried) from the festival. We are finally to the end, woohoo! (Or Boo, if you prefer, which I’m okay with, haha).

And finally I remembered to take a picture of the beer tasting glass (plastic, fine, call me out why don’t you!) included with the tickets!

Grapevine's Beertopia 2012 Glass!

Breweries Present (In Alphabetical Order):

AbitaBarley Wine, Triple Haze, Double Dog – I have had the Triple Haze before and I really liked it, however I didn’t actually see Abita in my travels that day, and so am now going to have to go find the Double Dog because it sounds DELISH!

Ace Premium Hard Ciders
Joker Dry Cider, Apple Honey Hard Cider – I have had the Joker before, and it’s good but a dry cider, but the Honey Cider is DEElicious. I love honey, so it’s a great blend of honey & apple with a kick of spice to make you realize it’s HARD cider, and not the kid’s drink we all remember and love.

AllagashWhite, Dubbel, Fluxus 2011 – Like Abita, I totally missed this brewery. Although I do enjoy the White, as I’ve had that quite a few times! Booo on me!

AnchorSteam, Porter, Old Foghorn Ale – Okay not only have I never heard of this brewery, but I didn’t even see them out there. Pssht oie vey. Old Foghorn being a barleywine, I probably wouldn’t have tried, but that Porter would’ve been delicious I’m sure. **sigh**

AveryIPA, Ellie’s Brown Ale, The Maharajah – I like Avery, but I didn’t make it to them before they ran out, darnitall. Clearly I did not do this alphabetically, people, give me a break! I am definitely going to try the Ellie’s Brown though, because it sounds delicious. That is also the main one I wanted to try that they went out of by the time I got there. 😦

Bell’s BreweryOarsman Ale, Bell’s Lager, Kalamazoo Stout – Okay, disclaimer. I LOVE Bell’s. Bells & Sam Adams are my 2 favorite breweries, hands down. I am from Kalamazoo so that is a big part of it. AND the brews are freaking spectacular, so that makes it even better. The Oarsman is probably my least favorite Bell’s, as it’s a very traditional “light beer” taste. It isn’t bad, but not the best of theirs. The Bell’s Lager is just yummy for an every day beer, any day. I like it. So my first sip of the Kalamazoo Stout really rocked me, it was so delicious, and had a very good chocolate and coffee balance – not too strong, just hints. Yum!

Dogfish HeadMidas Touch, Palo Santo Marron, Namaste – This is my brother’s FAVORITE brewery. I will say, the Palo Santo Marron was one of my favorite beers from the entire Beertopia experience. It. Was. Delicious!!!! The guys loved (and I concurred it was delish) the Midas Touch, and the Namaste was agreed to be the least favorite though by no means was it a bad beer, it was good in its own right, just paled next to the Midas & Palo for us! YUM!

Grand Teton Brewing CoBitch Creek ESP, Sweetgrass APA, 5 O’clock Shadow – We absolutely HAD to try this brewery due to the name of that ESP, haha. It was surprisingly delicious, hoppy, a little caramel-like undertone that isn’t overpowering in the least. The Sweetgrass was also sipped on, and it was a good, light APA style beer with a sharp citrus flavor that was a tad different from IPAs and made it uniquely scrumptious. Both were good, and I regret that we didn’t try the 5 O’Clock Shadow. Oh well, next year.

Highland BrewingLittle Hump Spring Ale, Gaelic Ale, Tasgall Ale – The Gaelic is of course an all-time classic ale. Great for a summer or winter eve, lots of flavor, and not too heavy or hearty. The Tasgall is a great Scotch Ale that just has such a rich and full-bodied flavor, it is unbelievable. I didn’t try the Little Hump, but as with all Highland brews, I’m sure it’s delicious as well.

Kind BeersPale Ale, Belgian Red – I somehow missed yet another brewery, but luckily it is a local Charlotte brewery so I can track it down here and try it out.

New BlegiumFat Tire, 1554, Cocoa Mole Ale – The Cocoa Mole was one of my favorite beers of the day. Spicy, chocolatey, with a nice finish full of flavor and pizzazz! YUM! And the Fat Tire and 1554 are always good choices as well! 🙂

Ommegang BreweryAbbey Ale, Belgian Pale Ale, Three Philosophers – Three Philosophers is honestly one of my all-time favorite beers. It is a splurge beer, a celebratory beer, a quadrupel ale that has such chocolate and malted cherry goodness I cannot stand it (okay yes I can, let’s be real – it’s chocolately beer, I can stand it TOTALLY!). And I totally got the guys all hooked on it Saturday, too, muahahaha! 😉

Redhook
Long Hammer, Pilsner, Nut Brown, Demo Ale – YUM. Their Demo was the best Demo I tried, and no it didn’t have a name, darnit. I’ve had their Pilsner and Nut Brown before and both are pretty darned tasty. But that Demo was magic, I must say.

RJ Rockers
Patriot Pale Ale, Black Perle Dark IPA – Dark IPA sounds intriguing, and I’d have loved to try it, but they were sold out completely when I found them. Boo.

Rodenbach
Classic Ale – Same guys as PALM Breweries, probably why I didn’t see them AT ALL… 😉

RogueAmerican Amber, John John Dead Guy, Chatoe OREgasmic Ale – American Amber was the only one I tried, but it was delicious, with a good lightly malted coffee taste to it. Hoppy, but not too much so. Very yummy. I wish I’d tried the OREgasmic Ale but alas, will need to find it in stores or draft now instead!

Sam AdamsBoston Lager, Dark Depths, Cinder Bock, Griffin’s Bow – This and Bell’s are my ALL-TIME favorite breweries. Period. Cherry Wheat is the beer that made me start liking beer, many moons ago. I. Love. All. Sam Adams. Boston Lager is just delicious and yummy and classic; Dark Depths had some very dark depths and was my favorite of these new 3, Cinder Bock was good with a true full Boch flavor, and Griffin’s Bow was kind of disappointing for a SA beer – it was probably my least favorite SA beer ever tried. It was just a little off in the hops. That was a first for me, but the other 2 were scrumdilyicious!

Sierra NevadaKellerweis, Pale Ale, Torpedo – Like this brewery, and the Pale Ale is good, but the Kellerweis was surprisingly delicious – I was pleasantly surprised by that one, wasn’t expecting that hefe to be so good and smooth, so yay, go SN!

SpatenLager, Optimator – The Spaten Lager is a classic hoppy German Lager. It was good, but I have to be in the mood for it I think. While I didn’t try the Optimator (out!) I think that would be more my style…

SweetWater Brewing Company420 Extra Pale Ale, Blue, Happy Ending – If I am in the mood for a very flavor-friendly beer, I get the SweetWater Blue, cuz it is nicely blueberry flavored without feeling like cough syrup just made a new flavor. Yum. The 420 is a great hoppy EPA, and I have to say I didn’t try the Happy Ending and boo on me for that, right?!?

Terrapin Beer CoHopsecutioner, Moo-Hoo, Wake ‘N Bake – Wake ‘n Bake is one of the best coffee porters I’ve ever had, period. It truly does wake you up. They were out of the others when I got there, but the Moo-Hoo is supposed to be FABulous. Boo for no Moo-Hoo! 😦

Westbrook Brewing CoIPA, Vanilla Tree Dubbel, Mexican Cake – The Mexican Cake is supposedly one of the best they have at Beertopia each year, but they sold out in like 5 minutes (shhh! that is my story, darnit, work with me!) so I had to try the IPA, which was a very full-hop beer, and yummy!

Ayayayayaya – so much beer, so little time! It also didn’t help that I needed to stay sober, so I needed to pace myself so that I wasn’t drinking more than 1.5 beers per hour… I did it, but definitely wish I’d been able to try sips of some of these missed beers! Oh well, next year, for sure, I will plan this out MUCH more efficiently! 😉

So that is today’s (and the final!) edition – March 14.4 – of the Beer Log entries. I apologize it didn’t come out Friday as planned, but as you can see, it was a lot of links to find, a lot of notes to write, and a lot of eye-bleeding to avoid! Plus there was this thing called work on Friday that kept interrupting, and this thing called St Patrick’s Day on Saturday… Tsk tsk for both of them! 😉

Today I am going to outline all of the craft beers that were offered at the festival. Then Friday will be the non-homebrew beers that I tried and my taste thoughts (including for ones I’ve had before so didn’t try there)! Be prepared, this is going to be an explosion of craft beer!

All of these breweries were setup across four tents, and there were some wonderful raffles and foods as well. The York County Cancer Association was selling pretzel necklaces (okay, taking donations in exchange for pretzels!), there was a BBQ, Fish Market, Bavarian Pretzel sellers, and Wingzza all selling food as well. New Belgium was doing a Fat Tire Bike raffle, as well as a raffle for a trip for 2 to Belgium for a Beer week in September. Yes, I entered both, and no I didn’t win the bike. They will draw the Trip raffle in July…so I will keep y’all posted on that one – woohoo! 😉

So that is today’s edition – March 14.3 – of the Beer Log entries. To be continued tomorrow for the final edition for the week!

Today I am going to outline all of the homebrew beers that I tasted and my thoughts – including comments from my buddy Jim who tried a few that I did not. Thursday and Friday will be the non-homebrew beers available and my taste thoughts on those.

– Troy Bigelow –> Pecan Porter — I really liked this beer. A lot. You could taste the roasted-toasted pecans but not too overwhelmingly, while it had a nice heavy porter build to the beer. Delicious.

– Jason Bridges –> Razzilla — None of us tried this beer saadly, however I will say that standing next to it at one point – it smelled delicious and raspberry-y with some undernotes of vanilla. Yes, someone next to me was drinking it AND a heavy breather… 😉

– Ben Dolphens –> Hopgasm — This beer placed 5th! Jim tried this so I can say that his opinion was this beer was hoppy but not overwhelmingly so, and it was more hoppy than the Hoppopotamus. He enjoyed it.

– Arnold Fry –> Breakfast Milk Stout — We all tried this one. I liked it, it was a good stout, a good breakfast coffee flavor to it, pretty creamy profile to it – but this was dwarfed by the Mocha Bear for the coffee porters for us all. But it was good, especially if you prefer your coffee chocolate-free, you’d like it a lot!

– Matthew Harter –> The Professor’s Black IPA — Okay this was hands down all of our favorites, the one 4/5 of us voted for (the other girl voted for Mocha Bear). We all LOOOOOVED this beer. I don’t know how it didn’t place. Seriously, the Black IPA was hoppy but had under and over tones of nuts and honey and lots of yummy hops. Mmmm. Mmmm. Good.

– Just Two Dudes –>Wicked Rye — Jim is not sure which Rye he tried, however he thinks it was this one. He enjoyed it despite not being a fan of Rye beers, though!

– Legal Remedy Brewing –> Privileged Porter — This beer won 1st place!!! Which is awesome! Then you learn that none of us tried it. And that is so NOT awesome. Booo us yet again. 😦

– Shawn McBride –> Mocha-Chino Breakfast Stout — This was a good breakfast stout with a good undercurrent of chocolate. I will say the Mocha Bear was better overall, but this was definitely not a slouch beer by any means on its own!

– Candice Payne –> God Bless American Ale — This beer is actually by some acquaintances of mine, and I really enjoyed it. This was a slightly hoppy and citrusy ale that just tasted like a good go-to beer for after a long day. Or a short one. I really enjoyed it!

– Mark Payne –> Blood Ale (Last Year’s Winner) — Like the GBA Ale, this is by some acquaintances of mine, and I really enjoyed this one also. This was last year’s #1 pick of the homebrew competition, and I can see why. It had a very subtle orange note to it that just flavored the aroma, first sip, undercurrent flavors and the aftertaste all very deliciously. Really good ale here!

– Greg Smith –> West Coast Hoppopotamus — Jim tried this and thought it was a good lightly hoppy beer.

– Bill Stayduhar –> Ryder Haus Hefe — Jim tried this one also and enjoyed it. I really wish I’d been able to find this one, because I looooove Hefes. Darnitall!

– Scott Watson –> Ivanna Chokolat — No one in our group tried this one, though I did hear good things about it from a lot of the ladies!

Basically, in summation, there wasn’t a bad homebrew to be tried, and there were clearly more homebrews offered than we knew what to do with. Next time, next year, we know that we need to divide and concur MUCH more efficiently and much earlier in the day! 😉

So that is today’s edition – March 14.2 – of the Beer Log entries. To be continued tomorrow…!

So we had advance tickets, a group of 5 of us were going, and I had a plan in mind for sampling as much of the 170 beer offerings as possible while remaining sober. Yes, it was a challenge to contemplate, but I had faith in myself! I was the DD, also, so I had a reason to set that challenge…! When Drew & I got there we saw this wonderful (yet incredibly fast-moving) line in front of us:

Line at 2:15pm for Beertopia: wrapped around 2 blocks!

Once we got up to where we could actually see Grapevine, we see that the York County Sheriff’s Department is responsible for checking everyone’s IDs. BRILLIANT! I mean really – if you get a fake past the cops, they can’t exactly get mad at the business for serving underage – the cops are the ones that let them through! I was also incredibly amused by this because normally people drinking heavily get nervous around cops, but the presence of police was very ‘felt’ at the event, and no one really seemed out of sorts because of it. It rocked on many levels. See?

So what about the beer?!? We got free plastic (and awesome) mini pint glasses for tasting our beers of choice. There were 170 beers represented across 50 craft breweries and 21 homebrewers at the festival. Choices, choices, choices! So today I am going to outline all of the homebrew beers that were available, and then tomorrow I am going to go through the ones that I tasted and my thoughts. Thursday and Friday will be the non-homebrew beers available, and tasted/thoughts. 🙂

Keep in mind there were HUGE crowds (and only 3.5 hours of time) so writing down much was kind of out of the question. Enter the wonder of short-hand-notes, woohoo!